Jaska Raatikainen
| Jaska Raatikainen | |
|---|---|
Jaska Raatikainen at the Ilosaarirock 2009 festival
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jaska Ilmari Raatikainen |
| Also known as | Jaska W. Raatikainen |
| Born |
July 18, 1979 Lappeenranta, Finland |
| Genres | Melodic death metal, thrash metal, power metal, progressive metal |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Drums, piano, French horn |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Labels | Nuclear Blast, Spinefarm, Century Media |
| Associated acts | Children of Bodom |
| Website | cobhc |
Jaska Raatikainen (born July 18, 1979) is the drummer and co-founder of the band Children of Bodom.
His first instrument was the piano, and during most of his childhood also played the French horn in a big band – a fact which later led him to be introduced to Alexander Kuoppala. It was only at the age of 12 that he began playing drums; he had his first double bass pedals before he owned a drum kit. He was inspired by musicians such as Scott Travis (from Judas Priest) and Mikkey Dee (from Motörhead).
When Raatikainen met Alexi Laiho at school in the year of 1993, they realised that they had similar ideas and musical taste. Thus, they began playing together and idealizing their band Inearthed which would one day become Children of Bodom. The band released their first demo, Ubiquitous Absence of Remission, which he contributed some keyboards. Jaska played a vital role in the formation of the band, since he was the one who brought both Alexander Kuoppala and Janne Wirman to their line-up. Jaska also provided backing vocals on the songs "Warheart", "Black Widow", and "Children of Bodom" from his band's album, Hatebreeder.
He has also helped quite a few bands when they needed a competent drummer. During Sinergy's 2000 European tour, he replaced Tommi Lillman, who had injured his leg. The problem, however, was that this happened three days before the start of the tour, which meant that Raatikainen had to quickly learn how to play ten of Sinergy's songs. Despite the high degree of difficulty, he managed to perform very well, and fans of both bands enjoyed seeing both Raatikainen and Laiho on stage together with Sinergy. On the Suicide by My Side album's booklet, the band wrote a dedicatory to Raatikainen for, on to their own words, "saving [their] tour".
Raatikainen has also played in Virtuocity and Evemaster albums, but since those are both studio bands, he does not have to worry greatly about Children of Bodom's tour schedule, which already has to be calculated ahead to some extent, due to Laiho's previously active participation in Sinergy.
...
Wikipedia